Spotlight
by Old Fiat
Summary: Little drabbles from each of the characters about being under the spotlight. Please read and review! Second: Gabriella
1. Ryan

**Spotlight**

Old Fiat

Summary: Little drabbles from each of the characters about being under the spotlight.

Disclaimer: I own lots of _High School Musical_ merchandise, but I do not own the film. That right goes to Disney. I also don't own any of the plays mentioned in this, or any other chapter.

Currently Listening: "We're All In This Together" by the _HSM_ cast from the _High School Musical_ soundtrack. (Two-disc special edition. Woot!)

The Plays: The productions mentioned in this are as follows (these may not be in the correct order):

_The Nutcracker_ (ballet. The Gingerbread woman and children are part of it.)

_The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ (I've actually seen this on stage once. It's beautiful.)

_A Christmas Story_ (I'm sure you could do this on stage somehow.)

_My Fair Lady_ (I haven't seen this on stage, but I love the movie.)

_The Music Man_ (I love this musical. This is referenced when I put 'Professor Harold Hill' in the last 'real' paragraph.)

_West Side Story_ (Not my favorite film, but it's okay. Referenced in the last 'real' paragraph when I put 'the leader of the Jets'.)

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_Ryan…_

I love the spotlight.

I love its burning heat, the way it blinds you to most of the world, the way it transforms people. I love standing under it, illuminated, to draw the eyes of the whole world. I love the moment when the whole room becomes dark and you're left standing in a pool of light and all the rest of the world has disappeared.

I remember the first time I went under it. I was five and I was one of the gingerbread children in _The Nutcracker_. Before we went on, I was so nervous I was ready to throw up while one of the older girl painted my face. Sharpay was another one of the gingerbread children and she looked pretty terrified too, until finally the girls painting our faces gave us a trick.

"_Imagine the audience members trying to do the dance moves._"

It worked, for a while at least. I knew there was no way our father would ever be able to move silently across the stage and the image of our mother under another woman's hoop skirt was so hysterical, Sharpay and I were giggling right up to when we had to go on.

But as I burst out of the skirt with all the other little kids, I suddenly caught sight of the audience. Rows and rows of adults and teens, all staring at me. Well, at least, I thought there were rows of people, I couldn't really see them. Perhaps there was no one there at all. Still, I froze, heart pounding, while the other children twirled around me.

That is until Sharpay hissed in my ear:

"_Dance Ryan!_"

So I danced. I let my body move as the choreography dictated. I saw one of the girls who had done my make up smiling encouragingly at me, her eyes sparkling. I was really and truly pleased with myself, something that had never happened before.

Over the years I over came my stage fright, so that by the age of eight I could stand in front of a packed auditorium and not freeze. I realized that on stage, people had to look at me _and_ Sharpay, not just Sharpay, (while I love my sister, she does get most of the attention.) and that I ought to give them a good show while I had their attention. It felt fabulous.

At nine though I stopped doing ballet performances for a short amount of time and was cast in a school production of _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ as Edmund. Sharpay was cast as Lucy. We were both big successes and decided to go through to musicals and plays and leave ballet behind us. Through the rest of elementary school Sharpay and I were in every production. I heard that the middle school was quite looking forward to having us in their drama club and I'm sure they loved Sharpay, but I got mononucleosis right before the big Christmas play. (I'm serious. It sucked.) And once I got better from that, we moved from lovely Rhode Island where I was known as a Little League champion and a brilliant performer to Albuquerque, where people only knew us because of Granddad's country club.

Sharpay and I assumed people would look up to us for our singing, acting and dancing skills, but nobody looked in our direction, even after we starred in the productions of _A Christmas Story_ (I was sadly cast as Ralphie because I hadn't gotten my growth spurt yet. Sharpay played the mom.) and _My Fair Lady_ (guess who we played.), which were quite popular among many people. However it seemed in Albuquerque that the only people who were treated as people were those who played sports or dated those who played sports. All boys who didn't play sports (I refused to join the baseball team when we moved because I'd promised all of my old teammates that I wouldn't.) were to be beaten up and the girls who didn't date the jocks were resolutely ignored.

But I continued to perform beside Sharpay, because once I was on stage, I was a king, not a human punching bag. Once I was up there everyone looked at me as a different person. I wasn't the guy whose head was jammed in the toilet every Friday by the hockey team. It was like I had a weird control over them once the spotlight switched on. I became Professor Harold Hill, or the leader of the Jets, or anyone else I had to be. Everyone else in the world vanished and I could just pretend that, for a second, I wasn't going to have my arms twisted behind my back the next day. I could dream that everyone wanted to be me and that they were all watching me. That's why I like being on stage.

Scratch that.

I _love_ it.

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**Woot! Ryan! I like the way this turned out. The part with **_**The Nutcracker**_** was a little odd, but it worked out okay. I hope you all enjoyed it. **

**Tell me in your review who you want next in this. I'm going to try and do all the characters. Well, most of the ones who have names any way.**

**-Old Fiat s. Italy**


	2. Gabriella

**Spotlight**

Old Fiat

Oh my God. I totally forgot about this story until I received a review from CowPox. I'm starting this up again. Here we go...

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**Gabriella**

Blinding. Disorientating. Hot. Frightening.

All these words described the spotlight for Gabriella for most of her life. It was fine when she was with the whole choir at school (or church). Then if she made a mistake, there were many other voices to cover her mistake. When she was fifteen she had been given the opportunity to try a solo. The moment it was her turn to sing, she caught sight of the audience-- even the bright light pointing directly at her eyes couldn't block them from view-- she felt her legs wobble and next thing she knew she was looking up at the rafters above the stage.

Luckily, she and her mother had moved a month later.

She supposed her hatred (that's what she liked to call it though it was a lot more akin to fear) of being on stage might be partially attributed to her constantly being moved from one state to the next. Ms. Montez's company was continually transferring her across the country. Gabriella hated it. She hated being pulled away from one school the moment she'd made any friends. She hated that if she ever did go up on stage, she probably wouldn't know anyone watching her. She hated that if she messed up, no one she knew would be there to say "Oh, nobody noticed" or "It wasn't _that_ bad!" She hated that it was always a different stage, a different spotlight. She could never get used to anything. Things always had to change or be left behind.

The worst change had been when her parents divorced. Her father was a high school teacher in a town in Oregon where she'd spent most of her childhood. Her mother was from Colorado, but she was willing to settle down with Gabriella's father. They had been in love.

Then he had to screw it all up and started an affair with the mother of one of his students. Ms. Montez found out. The marriage was over and she and Gabriella moved to Michigan. Her mother had given Gabriella the option of moving to her father's when Gabriella first complained about moving, but she wouldn't. She couldn't stand him anymore. As much as she hated leaving things behind... He had gone too far. She would never forgive him. She'd miss any friend she ever made more than him. It always hurt more saying goodbye to a recently gained friend than him. She hated saying goodbye.

And thus, she began to read. Books could go with her when she moved. She read any book she could get her hands on. She envied book characters who complained about living in a small town for their entire lives. She loved stories of romance, adventure, change. She loved books where characters discovered things about themselves. She loved classics along with a lot of newer books. She wished she could be more like Lily in _The Princess Diaries_ or Elizabeth in _Pride and Prejudice _and less like... Like...

She couldn't really think of a book character which she thought she was like. Sometimes she felt like Ella in _Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen_ and _My Perfect Life_-- shy, retiring and easily pushed around. Other days she felt like Margret in _Are You There God? It's Me, Margret_-- confused about anything and everything around her. Sometimes she even felt like Smike from _Nicholas Nickleby_-- forgotten and abandoned by the whole world.

She read to escape from reality. Also, when she read she drew little attention to herself. She _hated_ being the center of attention (which was probably why she didn't like being on stage).

Gabriella had been reading _Sense and Sensibility _that night at a New Year's Eve party at a ski resort. Her mother had informed her before that they would be moving again after the holidays and to go down and join the teen party the floor below. Grudgingly, Gabriella had gone, bringing her book with her. Settling herself down on a couch, she reopened the tome and tried to ignore the loud kids surrounding her.

Suddenly a blinding light shone in her eyes. She looked up, blinking confusedly. A young man came over and began pulling her up onto the small platform where people were doing karaoke. She tried to pull away-- many people had complimented her on her voice, but she hated singing by herself in front of people. She wouldn't do it. She _couldn't_ do it.

There was a boy about her own age being pushed on to the stage as well. He had light brown hair and a soft, round face. As they both arrived reluctantly on the stage, she saw his cheeks and ears were a flaming scarlet. He looked just as embarrassed as she felt. Now they were closer together, she saw his eyes were a bright, startling blue.

"You guys will be thanking me for this someday," said the young man who was apparently announcing the karaoke contestants. He gave the furiously blushing boy a sharp pat on the back and laughed. "Or not."

The boy gripped the microphone that the announcer had handed him, his knuckles white as a soft piano-tune played from the speakers. She stared down at her shoes, but she could feel the eyes of the other people around her. The boy looked up at the screen which displayed the song lyrics.

"_Living in my own world, didn't understand_," he sang, his voice a little rough. "_That anything can happen_..." He looked over at her, but she turned away. She didn't want to be there, even if he did have startlingly beautiful blue eyes.

Wait-- why did she think that?

"_When you take a chance_," he finished the line and looked at her, waiting for her to sing. She didn't. He gave his head a little shake and began to walk off the stage.

Gabriella took a deep breath. She didn't want to disappoint him; he seemed like too nice a guy.

"_I never believed in what I couldn't see_," she sang. Her voice cracked slightly and she tried to focus on the television slightly above them. He turned back around, surprised. "_I never opened my heart to all the possibilities..._"

"_I know that something has changed_..." Their voices combined perfectly. His high tenor tones complimented her even higher soprano voice. "_Never felt this way..._"

She smiled softly at him and his voice grew a bit stronger.

"_And right here tonight this could be the start of something new_..."

As they sang, the people around them seemed to melt away. She kept her eyes on him and only him and he beamed at her, belting out the cheery pop song. He wasn't always on key, but he looked so blissful while he sang.

"_The start of something... new..._" Their voices harmonized over the final note and then everyone started applauding.

Shock.

"I'm Troy!" said the boy, half shouting to be heard.

"Gabriella," she said, smiling. She had never felt so comfortable on stage.

She and Troy exchanged cell numbers, but she had no expectation of seeing him again.

They met again when she and her mother moved to Albuquerque. It turned out he had lived there all his life. They sang on stage together, after a few complications, and she never got stage fright again. She made lots of friends in Albuquerque and her mother promised not to move them again until Gabriella graduated high school.

She and Troy fell in love with each other on stage.

Love. Happiness. Friendship.

That's how Gabriella felt about the spotlight now.

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**Whoo! I hope you guys like this. I also would like to know, who has seen _High School Musical 3_ yet? I've seen it three times so far and it's awesome! I love "Can I Have This Dance?", "A Night to Remember", "Scream", Walk Away", "I Want It All" and "I Just Wanna Be With You" and... I loved all of them! It was amazing. If anyone on here hasn't seen it yet-- GO SEE IT NOW! Otherwise, you will miss out on an amazing cinematic experience.**

**Please review!**

**-OFsI**


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